Saturday, 29 August 2009

8th December 1980 - John Lennon murdered at the entrance of The Dakota

John Lennon signs a copy of Double Fantasy for Mark David Chapman - 8th December 1980

John Lennon was killed by a deranged fan on December 8th, 1980, as he returned to his New York apartment from a recording session.

At 22:49, John Lennon's limousine pulls up outside The Dakota and Jose Perdomo the doorman leaves his post to open the car doors for them. Yoko gets out first. She is followed closely by her husband, who is carrying a tape recorder and some cassettes. As Yoko passes him the killer says "Hello". Lennon gives the guy a long, hard look. As John passes him, the man steps back and pulles a snubnosed .38 revolver from his pocket. He drops into combat stance, with knees flexed, arms outstreched and one arm supporting the other at the wrist and says:"Mr. Lennon?" As John turns, the guy fires two shots into him. They catch him in the back, spinning him round. Blood already starts spurting from Lennon's wounds as the assassin takes aim again. He fires three more shots. Two bullet smashes into John's shoulder, the other goes astray. There's a crash of shattering glass as the slugs, that had passed through John's body smash into the Dakota's glass frontage. Mortally wounded John staggers up the steps into the Dakota's front lobby, his face horribly conturted. "I'm shot, I'm shot!" he moans as he falls to the ground. "John's been shot!" screams Yoko, who follows her husband into the hotel. Jay Hastings the security man reaches under his desk and presses the alarm button, which summones the police from the nearby 20th Precinct Station. After this, he rushes to John's side and removes his shattered glasses. Then he takes off his uniform to cover the victim.He wants to use his tie as a tourniquet, but can not decide where to apply it. John is dying, blood pours from his chest and mouth, his eyes are open but unfocused, he is gurgling and vomiting blood.

*** ALERT *** SHOTS FIRED *** 1 WEST 72nd STREET ***

...is the terse dispatch that summones New York Police Officer Tony Palma and his partner Herb Frauenberger to the scene of the crime.From the sidewalk Palma sees Hastings and shouts up anxiously: "Is someone shot in there?" He runs up the steps with Frauenberger. In Hasting's office they find a man lying face down with a small woman standing over him crying. Palma turns the body over. He sees that the victim is badly injured and tells his partner: "Grab his legs and let's get him out of here!" As they lift him, Hastings hears as John's bones crack.Bythe time they lay him in the back of a squad car, John loses all control over his limbs. As the car takes off, the driver Officer James Moran yells at John:"Do you know who you are?". Lennon is unable to speak, but nods. The car jumps the red lights on Colombus Avenue. It speeds down 9th Avenue into 58th Street and swings into the entrance of Roosevelt Hospital. The hospital's major trauma team is already alerted.The rapidly fading John is carried to the emergency room. He has virtually no pulse. The two bullets which had hit him on the back had both pierced a lung and passed through his chest. A third bullet had shattered his left shoulder bone, and a fourth had hit the same shoulder and ricocheted inside his chest, where it severed his aorta and windpipe.After an unsuccessful attempt at cardiac massage, a medical team of seven people laboures to save John using every device and technique available. Nothing works. John Lennon has lost 80% of his blood. The official cause of death is shock produced by massive haemorrhaging.